Tableau Online Help

Creators: Connect to data on the web

Version: Current

Before you can create a new workbook and build a view on the web to analyze your data on the web, you need to connect to your data. Tableau supports connecting to data sources on the web published through Tableau Desktop, or, connecting to data directly through Tableau Online or Tableau Server.

Starting in 2019.3, Tableau Catalog is available in the Data Management Add-on to Tableau Server and Tableau Online. When Tableau Catalog is enabled in your environment, in addition to navigating and connecting to data from Explore, you can navigate and connect to more kinds of data, like databases and tables, from Tableau Catalog. For more information about Tableau Catalog, see "About Tableau Catalog" in the Tableau Server or Tableau Online Help.

Note: Data connections created in Tableau Server or Tableau Online are live connections only. If you need to use an extract for web authoring, you can publish your data source through Tableau Desktop. To publish through Tableau Desktop, see Publish Data Sources and Workbooks.

Open the Connect to Data page

On the web, you use the Connect to Data page to access data to connect to. After you sign in to Tableau Server or Tableau Online, you can open this page two ways:

Home > Create Workbook

Explore > Create > Workbook

When you have Catalog enabled in your environment, you can filter the page by databases and tables, as well as data sources.

On the Connect to Data page, the tabs you see depend on the product you have.

On Tableau Server, select from the following tabs to connect to data: On this site, Files, and Connectors.

Connect to data On this site

Select On this site to browse to or search for published data sources.

Select the data source under Name and click the Connect button.

Note: When you have the Data Management Add-on with Tableau Catalog enabled, you can use On this site to connect to databases and tables, as well as data sources.

Connect to files

Tableau supports uploading Excel, text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv), and spatial file formats that only require one file (.kml, .geojson, .topojson, .json, and Esri shapefiles and Esri File Geodatabases packaged in a .zip) directly in your browser. In the Files tab of the Connect to Data window, connect to a file by dragging and dropping it into the field or clicking "Upload from computer."

Use connectors

From the Connectors tab, you can connect to data housed in a cloud database or on a server in your enterprise. You need to supply connection information for each data connection that you make. For example, for most data connections, you need to supply a server name and your sign-in information.

Supported Connectors has information on how to connect Tableau to each of these connector types to set up your data source. If the connector you need doesn't appear in the Connectors tab, you can connect to data through Tableau Desktop and publish your data source to Tableau Online or Tableau Server for web authoring. Learn more about how to Publish a Data Source in Tableau Desktop.

When Tableau successfully connects to your data, the Data Source page opens so that you can prepare the data for analysis and begin building your view. To learn more, see Creators: Prepare Data on the Web.

Tableau Server connectors

Actian Matrix*

Amazon Aurora

Amazon Redshift

Aster Database*

Box

Denodo*

Dropbox

Exasol

Google BigQuery**

Google Cloud SQL

Google Drive

IBM BigInsights

IBM DB2

IBM PDA (Netezza)*

MariaDB

MarkLogic*

MemSQL

Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Microsoft SQL Server

MonetDB*

MySQL

OneDrive

Oracle

Pivotal Greenplum Database

PostgreSQL

SAP Sybase ASE*

SAP Sybase IQ*

Snowflake

Vertica

*Not available on Linux servers.

**Google BigQuery requires OAuth when creating data sources from the web. Learn more about how server administrators can Set up OAuth for Google.

Tableau Catalog Supported Connectors

Tableau Catalog supports making a connection with a subset of the data connectors that Tableau Server supports. If a data source, database, file, or table is grayed out, you can't connect from Tableau Server. You can, however, connect from the Tableau Desktop Connect pane, if you have the correct permissions.

On Tableau Online, select from the following tabs to connect to data: On this site, Files, Connectors, and Dashboard Starters.

Connect to data On this site

Select On this site to browse to or search for published data sources.

Select the data source under Name and click the Connect button

Note: When you have the Data Management Add-on with Tableau Catalog enabled, you can use On this site to connect to databases and tables, as well as data sources.

Connect to files

Tableau supports uploading Excel or text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv) directly in your browser. In the Files tab of the Connect to Data window, connect to an Excel or text file by dragging and dropping it into the field or clicking "Upload from computer."

Use connectors

From the Connectors tab, you can connect to data housed in a cloud database or on a server in your enterprise. You need to supply connection information for each data connection that you make. For example, for most data connections, you need to supply a server name and your sign-in information.

Supported Connectors has information on how to connect Tableau to your data using a connectors. If the connector you need doesn't appear in the Connectors tab, you can connect to data through Tableau Desktop and publish your data source to Tableau Online or Tableau Server for web authoring. Learn more about how to Publish a Data Source in Tableau Desktop.

Note: If you’re unable to connect to your data from Tableau Online, check to see if the database is publicly accessible. Tableau Online can only connect to data that's accessible from the public internet. If your data is behind a private network, you can connect using Tableau Bridge. To learn more, see Publishers: Use Tableau Bridge to Keep Tableau Online Data Fresh.

Tableau Online Connectors

Amazon Aurora

Amazon RedShift

Box

Denodo

Dropbox

Exasol

Google BigQuery*

Google Cloud SQL

Google Drive

MemSQL

Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Microsoft SQL Server

OneDrive

Oracle

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

Vertica

*Google BigQuery requires OAuth when creating data sources from the web. Learn more about how server administrators can Set up OAuth for Google.

Tableau Catalog Supported Connectors

Tableau Catalog supports making a connection with a subset of data connectors that Tableau Online supports. If a data source, database, file, or table is grayed out, you can't connect from Tableau Online. You can, however, connect from the Tableau Desktop Connect pane, if you have the correct permissions.

Use Dashboard Starters

On Tableau Online, you can author and analyze data from Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce, ServiceNow ITSM, and QuickBooks Online using Dashboard Starters. On the Dashboard Starter tab, from the list of pre-built designs, select an option and click Use Dashboard. For more information, see Dashboard Starters for Cloud-based Data Sources.

After you connect

When Tableau connects to your data, the Data Source page opens so that you can prepare the data for analysis and begin building your view. To learn more, see Creators: Prepare Data on the Web.

Keep data fresh in web authoring

Update uploaded files in Tableau Online or Tableau Server: If you manually upload a file (Excel or text) for web authoring, Tableau can’t refresh the file automatically. To update your data, select “Edit Connection” to upload a new version of the file.

Update file-based published data sources in Tableau Online: If you have a published data source in Tableau Online (published through Tableau Desktop) that uses file-based data, you can keep it fresh using Tableau Bridge. For more information, see Expand Data Freshness Options by Using Tableau Bridge.